488 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924. 



present these four areas in western Texas should be excluded from 

 the effort at eradication, but that these areas shoukl be quarantined 

 and thoroughly controlled and all cotton produced therein should be 

 fully safeguarded both as to local utilization and with the require- 

 ment of export under safeguards of the lint. 



An important consideration in reaching this decision is the fact 

 that these four areas are all widely separated from the great cotton 

 areas of central and eastern Texas by stretches of semidesert or 

 grazing country, and these areas, therefore, represent perhaps no 



freater menace or risk to eastern Texas than does Mexico itself, 

 'heir control places them, therefore, practically in the same status 

 relative to other cotton production in the United States as though , 

 they were part and parcel of Mexico. Ultimately, when the full 

 clean-up of eastern Texas and Louisiana has been completed, it would 

 seem to be highly desirable to take up certainly the Pecos regions 

 in Texas and New Mexico for similar clean-up. Any permanent 

 eradication of the pest along the Rio Grande in the Great Bend 

 district and westward, as already indicated, must be dependent on 

 the cooperation of Mexico in similar work with respect to the con- 

 tiguous cotton areas in that Republic. 



Mr. Anderson. Can the movement of the crop be controlled with 

 any certainty from the regulated districts ? 



Doctor Marlatt. Mr. Chairman, I think we have methods of con- 

 trolling all the movements of cotton grown in these western districts; 

 at least, there has been no mfestation which has come from any such 

 movement, and we think that it ife pretty adequately safeguarded. 

 It amounts to the prohibition of an}^ movement of cotton seed or 

 seed cotton whatsoever from these districts. The cotton lint is mider 

 control until exported. It moves from El Paso or from the Pecos 

 district or any of the other districts directly to the port of export and 

 that means usually the nearest port of export, Galveston, Texas li 



City, or Houston, and these are also within a regulated zone. If it re- I I 

 mains at these ports for any length of time it is kept imder control in ^ ^ 

 licensed warehouses until it is shipped abroad. Some of the cotton 

 that is shipped abroad may come back, but if any of the cotton from 

 regulated cfistricts comes back to this country it is treated like foreign 

 cotton and must be fumigated as a condition of entry unless it can be 

 shown that it is more than two years old. The insect will not remain 

 alive in the boll over the second year; that is, beyond the second year. 



KEIMBURSEMENT TO FARMERS IN CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN. 4 



Mr. Andkrson. I would like to ask you if you can give us any idea 

 how mucli of the $200,000 which is available for reimbursement has 

 been expended or is likely to be expended this year? 



Doctor Marlatt. I have a statement which indicates the expendi- 

 tures under this item for the year 1922; that is, the one that is just 

 c()rn|)lcted. We spent $20,000, taking just the large figures, in clean- 

 up work, at a cost of $4.50 an acre; that was the average cost. That 

 compares with a cost of about $9 or $10 an acre during the war * i 

 period, when labor was scarce and high. We have been able to reduce ^ 

 this cost largely by contracting for the work with fanners, which 

 was not possible^ in tlio old days because the i)ovs were all away and 

 wo had to hire labor, transj)ort it, feed it, and house it. The cost 



